Published on Nov 7, 2003
Despite my predilection for progressive rock and acoustic music,
I get in occasional moods for loud, aggressive, dark, and edgy
electronica and hard rock. The problem with the musical spectrum
that ranges from Tool to Nine Inch Nails to Disturbed is easy to
identify; when it sucks, it sucks really really bad, and it sucks a
lot.
Thank the Unseelie Court for bands like Black Dahlia; they’re so
good they almost single-handedly redeem the genre. On their debut
CD,
Temptation Halo, the St-Louis based indie performers of
“dark electronic sleaze” (their words) blow the doors off, serving
up a heaping helping of gothic goodness that’s light-years (or
would that be dark-years?) ahead of most purveyors of the
genre.
First off, let’s talk about the sound. Black Dahlia manages to
sound textured without sounding muddy; nothing disappears in the
mix, and you get moments where individual instruments stand out and
grab you like the keyboards in “All For Nothing” or the dark,
ringing guitars on “Requiem.” Kudos to the production and
engineering, which was handled by the band members; Temptation Halo
is really, really crisp, playing up the music’s strengths.
In terms of musicianship, there isn’t a bad performance on the
disc. Lead vocalist Christoph D’Vincent Hrivnak has a great, great
set of pipes; he alternately soars and growls with a brilliant
capacity for expression on his voice. Guitarists Joel Emory and
Jimmi Griffin are terrific, alternately providing the background
underpinning and letting loose like demons (especially on “Lust
(Starfucker),” where they take the paint off walls). Aaron X’s bass
throbs like a heartbeat, balanced elegantly by Michael St John’s
thundering drums. All the members of Black Dahlia are veterans of
the St Louis indie scene, and you can tell; these guys have the
skills and the cojones to use ’em.
Best of all, maybe, is that Black Dahlia is pissed off, and lets
you know it. Under the dark electronic veneer is an attitude like a
punk band on too much caffeine and sugar; on songs like “Hate” and
“Bitter And Blasphemous” they transcend the trite shock-value of
most goth and metal music to really say some things that need
saying. Imagine, if you will, if Rage Against The Machine,
Disturbed, and Trent Reznor had a bastard child — I suspect it’d
sound a lot like Black Dahlia.
On “Hate,” Christoph snarls “Wake up — it’s almost over / I may
be evil or just misunderstood.” On the contrary, I think Black
Dahlia understands themselves pretty well; they’re right, they’re
tight, and they’re one of the best things I’ve heard this year.
Check ’em out before they make it any bigger — because I suspect
they will.
Temptation Halo is brilliant.
To order Black Dahlia’s Temptation Halo
, check out
www.blackdahliamusic.com.